Folks
It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about updating this thread, but I feel that with these few spare hours I seem to have found myself with late on a very frosty night it may be a good time. I’ve said before I can’t seem to ever run out of energy and enthusiasm with this old Lada, so maybe it’s a good time to tell you all about the current spec and what my goals are still with it.
As you know it started out as a replica of the famous Top gear Lotus Lada (which G.C was involved with) and I only ever really intended it to be a toy car and to maybe have a bit of fun with on a weekend, we have done two magazine features, one with Retro cars and another with Phil Ward’s excellent publication of AUTOITALIA but this was long ago and I kept yearning towards the true potential of such a special car. To my delight the development seems to have heavily snowballed over the last 18 months or so. I started a small Motorsport business with a Ex Professional Racing driver. We tested this car HARD lap after lap around Croft Circuit in Durham, setting brakes on fire, tearing engine mounts and even de-laminating tyres etc it’s very easy once you start to get into the dynamic and design of Ladas to see the potential lurking within. If you add some knowhow a lot of time and some proper engineering to them they can show a show a clean pair of heels to most things on circuit.
We started to do more and more track days with it and each time we made heavy upgrades to the car, in particular the Brakes, gearing and suspension and each time the Lap times would fall, sometimes by as much as 3 seconds. The ultimate lap time in a works touring car around Croft Circuit is a low 1:20 and when I first ran this car we were struggling to get below 2:05 now we are regularly achieving the Mid 1:40’s and my ultimate goal is to go sub 1:40, This would be a very respectable lap time for a car weighing over 1 tonne with hardly any-no aero work and running fully analogue N/A 8v engine with traditional technology found in 1970’s production cars.
You can imagine the trouble that is caused when you start out braking Lamborghinis and driving around the outside of Mitsubishi Lancer Evo’s in a Lada, they walk over and expect to find some sort of mod sport special disguised as a Lada with some unacceptable Japanese turbo nutter expletive_deleted engine with loads of numbers on it, but their grief it compounded when you open the bonnet and say “no its just a Fiat twin Cam on a pair of IDF’s”
I posted some interesting pictures below of some the upgrades and the car in action. They is also some YouTube inboard videos of the car to enjoy. It also gives some of the people who haven’t experienced the performance of one of G.C famous Fiat Twin cams a chance to gauge the performance and sound these engines generate on full chat, obviously the videos dilute the feeling of speed but they the best thing from outside the car. I apologise that I won’t be going into details on all the pictures as it would take me months to do, but if they is any key technical questions I’d be happy to answer them for you.
I’d also like to thank a few key individuals that have made this project possible, whom without we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything like this level of performance in a Lada
Tommi Huuhka, who’s help with differentials and general level of knowledge and advice on all things Lada would have made everything so much more difficult.
Jackie, my general number 2 who is there helping out with everything on this car from Logistics to sweeping the floor
Juhani Tormanen, Juhani flew over from Finland to build up a Close ratio Gearbox for us, his knowledge and confidence inspired us all....top bloke in every respect.
G.C, obviously for the engine and general advice on everything.
Max Wakefield, Max is a world champion on 2,3 and 4 wheels and knows how to work a set of controls, his input from the cockpit is totally invaluable....No way could we extract everything he does. A very knowledgeable, experienced and consistent racing driver.
An earlier video below of the car in 2013, the camera and sound quality is poor but it gives a good indication to the performance prior to the close ratio gearbox and race final drive I fitted. Its impressive as its managing to keep up with a Lotus Exige
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2IEdo9tSpM
A much later Video from September 2014, here you can see Max taking on two Caterham Academy cars, Its a shame about the gear selector falling apart as I was keen to see him get close enough to the yellow one and pass it. This Video is great if you have never experienced one of GC Fiat twin cam engines on full chat, the sound quality is excellent as are the cameras from the Racelogic data logger. I apologise that the camera is on a bit of a wonk and that the airbox lid is rattling slightly but it doesn't ruin the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UK6lhaU9WI